What's New

July 2000

I-CANS Goes Online

In 1990, the state of Washington determined a need to expand its basic skills curricula to include workplace basic skills identified by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). To meet this need, Washington's newly created Office of Adult Literacy at the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the Employment Security Department, supported by a combination of Adult Education Act and Job Training Partnership Act funds, created the Integrated Curriculum for Achieving Necessary Skills (I-CANS) project.

I-CANS was developed as a skills-based instructional system for all providers of basic skills instruction to youth and adults. It assists learners to achieve the skills necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve their personal goals, and to increase their knowledge and develop their full potential.

Western/Pacific Literacy Network has now taken I-CANS online, making the curriculum available to anyone who wants to use it. I-CANS includes hundreds of useful activities designed to help people learn how they learn best, how to work efficiently, how to function well in a work environment, and much more. Take a look at I-CANS online!

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Western/Pacific Awards Mini-Grant
to KQED to Expand Media Literacy Project
to Include Adult Learners

Adults in recent years have received better tools to help them watch what they're eating. Now, thanks to a partnership between Western/Pacific Literacy Network and KQED, they'll have tools to help them watch what they're watching.

According to KQED, a San Francisco-based public television and radio station, "television has become the primary source for individuals to receive information about people, places and what is called 'news.' " KQED created its Education Network (EdNet) to "inspire learning through the innovative understanding, use and creation of media and to help create a literate, empowered community." EdNet's Media Literacy component was originally designed for K-12 educators to create lesson plans designed to help their students think critically about the information they receive through television.

"Adult learners especially tend to rely more on TV than on other media to obtain information," reports KQED. Now, with the help of a mini-grant from Western/Pacific, KQED will expand its media literacy program to include a component for adult learners. For more information about KQED's EdNet, click here. Stay tuned for further information about this exciting project.

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What Is the World Coming To?
Learning Resources, Actually!

Learning Resources, an innovative collaboration between Western/Pacific Literacy Network and CNN's San Francisco bureau, has proven to be a big hit not only with adult learners in the United States but also with adults learning English all over the world! In fact, the number of countries accessing Learning Resources recently jumped up to 107, and we thought it would be fun to show who's stopping by. So here they are, in descending order of number of visitors:

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Western/Pacific's Science & Technology
LINCS Special Collection
Updated for Teachers and Tutors

Fresh links? Who's got fresh links? Teachers and tutors wanting to use science to help their adult learners need look no further: Susan K. Cowles has recently updated the Teacher/Tutor section of the LINCS Science and Technology Special Collection, maintained and designed by Western/Pacific Literacy Network. Full of links to the best science resources on the net, this site is indispensable for those wishing to expand their curriculum. In addition, the site boasts a bit of a design update as well, which will be applied to all sections of the site as it receives further updates. Remember to check back here for the latest news!

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Colorado State Literacy Resource Centers
Site Receives a LINCS Makeover

The Colorado State Literacy Resource Centers site, maintained and designed by Western/Pacific Literacy Network, recently underwent a content and design makeover. Colorado has taken on the LINCS template while maintaining some rugged western individual flavor of its own. This site is meant to be the first stop for anyone who is interested in finding out about family and adult literacy programs in Colorado. Take a look!

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Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center
Publishes Spring 2000 Roundup

The Northwest Regional Literacy Resource Center has just published its Spring 2000 Regional Resource Roundup in Adobe Acrobat format (if you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download it here). From the front page of the latest Roundup: "We all face barriers and challenges in our quest to deliver effective adult basic skills education. However, programs serving geographically dispersed and isolated rural populations face many unique obstacles. This issue of Roundup focuses on the specific types of challenges rural programs face, and how two Northwest programs--one in Wyoming, one in Washington--are overcoming these obstables in novel and effective ways."

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Oregon State Literacy Resource Center
Publishes May 2000 Issue of Learning Matters

Oregon's State Literacy Resource Center describes its newsletter, Learning Matters, as "designed to share excellent teaching, learning, and program practices, and to serve as a forum for professionals to challenge their own practices by exploring new ideas. It is also a place to address how we can build a better delivery system that meets federal, state, and local challenges." The newsletter is published three times a year, and the May 2000 issue has just been added to the site in Adobe Acrobat format (if you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download it here).

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Western/Pacific Literacy Network
Announces Round 4 Mini-Grant Recipients

Approximately twice each year, Western/Pacific Literacy Network awards mini-grants for the creation of high-quality online literacy projects. Content can be literacy education materials, modules, or curriculum, or it can provide training for practitioners and learners. Education projects may consist of original or existing, tested materials. Training projects may promote online literacy teaching/learning and/or raise awareness of the national Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) project and its resources. The budget for each proposal must be no larger than $3,000.

Applicants must be providers of adult or family literacy services (e.g., adult schools, community colleges, libraries, state agencies, prisons or jails, or community-based organizations [CBOs]) within the Western/Pacific region.

The Round 4 recipients are as follows:

Focus on Literacy
(Napa City-County Library, CA)

• Description: Learners in the library’s literacy program will utilize their photographs as tools to develop fundamental reading and writing skills.
  
• Target Area: Multilevel ESL
  
• Funding; $2000

Ecosystem of a Lake
(Adult Education Center of Durango, CO)

• Description: A virtual, interactive investigation of a typical temperate climate lake emphasizing building vocabulary, analyzing data, assessing and solving problems, and interpreting maps, charts and graphs.
  
• Target Area: Science Education (low level ABE)
  
• Funding; $2550

Monthly Science Web page
(Adult Education Center of Durango, CO)

• Description: A monthly interactive, virtual science page based on a current science related event.
  
• Target Area: Science Education (ABE or pre-GED)
  
• Funding; $3000

Easy Ways to Expand Your Child’s Intelligence
(South San Francisco Public Library, CA)

• Description: A monthly interactive, virtual science page based on a current science related event.
  
• Target Area: Science Education (ABE or pre-GED)
  
• Funding; $3000

Wyoming State LINCS Local Mentor Project
(The Leadership Coalition, Inc., WY)

• Description: Connecting local ABE programs through web sites.
  
• Target Area: Low Level ABE and marketing LINCS
  
• Funding; $3000

Talking Story, Hilo Style — Part 2
(Hawaii State Library Foundation, HI)

• Description: Four locally themed books of 7 stories with exercises for web publishing.
  
• Target Area: Low level ABE and ESL
  
• Funding; $3000

Parenting in Hispanic Families
(Southwest Board of Cooperative Services/
Four Corners Resource Center for Distance Education - CO)

• Description: Web site to provide Hispanic parents with parenting material in low level English.
  
• Target Area: Family literacy Low level ABE and ESL
  
• Funding; $3000

Hands-on Math
(Southwest Board of Cooperative Services/
Four Corners Resource Center for Distance Education - CO)

• Description: Web site to provide life-skill/math modules for low level English.
  
• Target Area: Family literacy Low level ABE and ESL
  
• Funding; $3000

The Key to Community Voter Involvement Project
(Friends of the Reading Program of the Santa Clara County Library, CA)

• Description: Revamp Easy Reading Voter Guide for November election and put up two workbooks for web publishing: How to Vote and How to be Heard and Make a Difference
• Target Area: Low level ABE and ESL
• Funding; $3000

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